Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie.
The 2021 Mortal Kombat movie did a serious disservice to its primary villain Shang Tsung. Far from the fearsome figure in the original games, the film's take on the soul-stealing sorcerer seemed largely content to hide behind his minions and talk the heroes to death.
Shang Tsung was the chief villain of the first Mortal Kombat game. Presented as an ancient and immortal sorcerer who had officiated over the Mortal Kombat tournament for centuries, Shang Tsung was the final challenge players faced in the game's story mode. Later games revealed Shang Tsung to be a servant of the Outworld Emperor Shao Kahn, but Shang Tsung has remained one of the series' most dangerous and formidable villains despite this loss of standing. Many have dismissed Shang Tsung's power as a warrior due to his status as a sorcerer, much to their folly and regret. Beyond extending his life and youth, Shang Tsung's status as a soul-drinker enables him to take on the memories, combat styles and appearance of anyone whose soul he can claim. This makes him a threat even ignoring his considerable experience as a fighter.
Unfortunately, we see almost nothing of Shang Tsung's power in the new Mortal Kombat movie. Indeed, the whole concept of the movie is counterintuitive to why Shang Tsung set himself up as the master of the Mortal Kombat tournament in the first place. In the original games, Shang Tsung used the tournament to provide himself with a steady stream of warrior's souls so that he could build his powers while paving the way for Outworld's invasion of Earth. In the new movie, Shang Tsung and the Outworld forces are trying to kill off the heroes of Earth before the tournament can even take place so that they can avert a prophecy regarding how Earth's heroes will come to rally around the bloodline of Hanzo Hasashi.
The only time the audience is given a sense of Shang Tsung's power comes at the end of the second act when Shang Tsung takes the initiative to telekinetically grab a stunned Kung Lao while the heroes are making their escape from the besieged Temple of Raiden. With a trickle of sickly green light and his trademark declaration of "Your soul is mine," Shang Tsung claimed Kung Lao's soul as Cole Young and Liu Kang watched helplessly. While this moment was true to the games, it vastly undersold just how powerful Shang Tsung is and the variety of magics he can bring into play in a fight.
It's possible that the screenwriters wanted to hold Shang Tsung's full capabilities in reserve for the sequels. There is some logic to this, as it would prove disheartening to the heroes to suddenly find themselves facing their fallen friends when fighting Shang Tsung in the actual tournament. And yet it seems as if something could have been done to fully convey the danger Shang Tsung poses without him being the largely passive figure seen in the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie.